Citing Sources

Need help? Librarians are available to assist you in the Heiner Building.

What is a Citation?

A citation is like a street address that helps others identify and locate the material in your writing that comes from another source.

Why is citing your sources important?

Giving credit to others is a key aspect to completing your required course work and the only way to use the work of others without plagiarizing. The two citation styles most used at Whatcom Community College are:

You can find style manuals (for all citation styles used at Whatcom) and handouts by visiting the Library.

Managing your citations

If you have a lot of sources, sometimes using a tool to help manage your citations can help you stay more organized. We recommend using Zotero (its a free tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources).

tip: Auto-generated citations can sometimes contain errors, double-check the information about your source while you are still looking at it to ensure accuracy.

Plagiarism

What is it?

Faculty

Visit this site (developed by Turnitin, LLC.) for tips on building concepts of academic integrity into your curriculum, including pedagogical recommendations for facilitating student understanding of:

Citing, quoting

Avoiding plagiarism

Book a librarian for a full or mini-session on this or any other aspect of the research process and give your students a leg up!

Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another person and presenting them as your own. This can be done unintentionally as well as purposefully and both violate our Student Code of Conduct (WAC 132U-125-020).

When in doubt, cite your sources!

This recommended tutorial from Turnitin will provide you with a basic understanding of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.